Vestas closed the UK's only wind turbine blade factories, on the Isle of Wight, in August 2009. Workers occupied the factory, then picketed. This blog is a history of that dispute and of the ongoing campaign for green jobs.

Protest at SEEDA offices, Guildford – nationalise Vestas!

ACTIVISTS PROTEST AT GOVERNMENT OFFICES TO DEMAND NATIONALISATION OF VESTAS WIND TURBINE FACTORIES

A group of activists from the Workers’ Climate Action campaign are staging a protest at the offices of the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA), to demand the nationalisation the Vestas wind turbine factories on the Isle of Wight .

Carrying placards and banners saying “Vestas out, workers in!” and “Sack the bosses, not the workers”, the protestors are demanding to speak with a SEEDA representative.

SEEDA, which owns the site of one of the Vestas factories and recently handed over £6 million in public money to the company, aims to “identify the actual and potential barriers and action required to enable further progress” in sustainable development in the region.

Vestas, which refuses to continue production in the UK or to hand over the factories to the government, is a barrier to sustainable development. Workers’ Climate Action is demanding that the plants are taken into public ownership and run in the interests of people not profit – providing jobs and sustainable technologies – under the democratic control of their workforce.

Today’s protest is part of the national day of action in solidarity with the Vestas workers; protests are taking place in dozens of cities around the country calling for nationalisation of the Vestas factories.

The Vestas factories, the only ones in the UK producing wind turbine blades, were due to close at the end of last month, causing more than 600 redundancies as the company sought to move production to the United States.

The government claims to have offered Vestas subsidy to continue production in the UK , which Vestas refused. At present, the government refuses to take any further action to save the factory.

Workers’ Climate Action builds links between activists in the workers’ and environmental movement to fight for a sustainable society based on socially useful production. See http://workersclimateaction.wordpress.com

Like this:

LikeLoading...

Related

Responses

In fact the original plan was to temporarily occupy the SEEDA offices’ reception area. Unfortunately, however, the plan misfired and only one activist got in. He ‘occupied’ for about an hour, causing quite a bit of fuss while the protest took place outside. The result was that lots of SEEDA workers came downstairs to see what was going on, and took a leaflet, and a few people who seemed to be top SEEDA officials too.

Categories

What we're fighting for

Vestas Blades UK made production workers at their factories on the Isle of Wight redundant on 12 August 2009. More than 500 jobs were lost. Many more jobs that depend on Vestas will follow. This makes no sense from a green or a labour perspective!

At the same time, the government announced a major expansion of renewable energy including wind power. We are calling on the government to intervene to save jobs at companies like Vestas - through nationalisation if that is what it takes - to show that it is serious about saving the planet.

Actions & meetings

Wednesday 17 February

NEWPORT, ISLE OF WIGHT 7pm, Save Our Services public meeting, called by Unison, but open to all who want to campaign against the proposed cuts to council and all jobs and services. Venue: Hunnyhill Room, The Riverside Centre, The Quay, Newport, Isle of Wight.